Lili, the Danish transgender

Lili, the Danish transgender

Lili Elbe, became to live not only for her book “Man into woman” but also for the film The Danish Girl.

Lili was born as Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener in 1882 in Denmark. For most of her life, Lili was known as Einar, a Danish painter specialized in landscapes and paintings of Paris.

When Einar studied art in Copenhagen, he met Gerda Wegener and they fell in love. After two years they got married.

One day when Gerda was missing for a model, she asked Einar to wear stockings and heals so he can substitute the model. Thay day Lili Elbe was born.

Gerda used Einar “Lilli” in the next paintings, and eventually they became very famous in Copenhagen and Paris. They also traveled around Italy and eventually they settled in Paris, so they could live openly their love, Lilli as a woman and Gerda as a lesbian.

Lili Elbe and Claude Lejeune

During the transition, Lilli had a lot of problems, including diagnostics by doctors who said that he was homosexual before her surgeon in Dresden.

Lilli had her first sex reassignment surgery in 1930 in Germany and during the next two years, she had 4 surgeries. When she ended the last surgery, Elbe was a big sensation in Denmark and Germany and changed her name legally.

Lilli Elbe, after dissolving her marriage, started a relationship with Claude Lejeune. But after a the surgery to implant a uterus, that at the time was experimental, Lilli’s health started to decline and she died in 1931.